Shades of Grey
by Ruffyan
Summary: Death-fic. Some occult stuff. This could happen to you. BUHAHAHA. (Chapter 3 edited a bit.)
1. The Setup

The Setup  
  
A/N: I don't own any of the MutantX characters. The doctor isn't mine either. This is going to be a dark story, I think. Short and dark. So if you get depressed easily, don't read it.  
  
************  
  
The doctor paced slowly around the examination table, keeping a hand-held monitor poised carefully over her patient. The patient, a man in his early forties lay there silent and motionless in the darkened room. He was stripped down to his boxer shorts and his pale thin body lay face-down, face held steady in a chin harness, a concave hollow in the examination table. A golden beam slowly passed over him every 15 seconds. The doctor watched the monitor's readout intently as she measured from all angles. Finally she gently touched the man's bald head.  
  
"Ok, I'm finished." She told him.  
  
The patient lifted and turned his head upward toward the woman, dressed in a long lab coat. Her stethoscope hung around her neck more as a symbol of her profession than for any utility. Her real tool was in her hand, the portable monitor of vital functions which doubled as a cardiopulmonary resuscitator when necessary, a small black box with a couple buttons and a readout screen. The man sighed deeply, his intense dark eyes accented with straight, dark eyebrows that angled up slightly at the ends studied the doctor. He suddenly squinted and looked away as the beam passed over him.  
  
"How'd I do?" he asked.  
  
The doctor extended her gloved hand toward her patient to help him up to a sitting position. He looked at the proffered hand curiously.  
  
"You never did tell me why you wear those," he commented, allowing the woman to lift and guide him to a sitting position. He studied her pale countenance crowned with a neatly bound mane of dark hair that had streaks of gold running through. The doctor looked sideways at her patient and allowed herself a half smile. He was in a good mood today. She bowed her head deferentially to her half naked subject.  
  
"It's for your protection and for mine," she answered enigmatically, moving behind him. She now extended both of her gloved hands toward his back, starting from the shoulders and slowly but gently ran the tips of her fingers down his back in a vertical line to his waist. She closed her eyes as she sensed the man's physical pain. She probed more deeply. The bald man closed his eyes and visibly relaxed as her hands slowly traveled downward, millimeter by millimeter.  
  
"Sir? This may sound strange, but I have been detecting untapped meta- human potential in you for several months. I have been monitoring this anomaly to see if it was a false reading, but my instrumentation and my natural senses both strongly confirm it."  
  
"Are you saying that I am a New Mutant?"  
  
The doctor nodded. "Potential New Mutant."  
  
"That's impossible," the man replied huffily. "I am a normal human. Except for the genetic destruction that occurred to my body thanks to Adam Kane's experiment, I am perfectly normal." The man craned his neck to look back at her. "What kind of ability?" he asked, suddenly intrigued.  
  
"You are aware that the body learns to compensate for that which is missing. In the absence of your immune system, coupled with the tremendous exposure to both radioactive and mutagenic materials and the months of rest- or shall we say incubation in the stasis pod- your body has been building up a potential of meta-human energy. How it will be utilized may be manifested soon, it would depend on your unique disposition."  
  
The patient had a bemused expression on his face as he contemplated the new information. He suddenly looked alert when he realized that the doctor had finished her therapy and had moved to the console. She was writing something on the clipboard that held his medical chart.  
  
"Are we finished?" he asked.  
  
"Yes." The doctor replied.  
  
The man moved to a small private chamber located in the sterile examination area, removed his shorts and stood at its center. Only his head was outside of the chamber. "Begin sequence." He said.  
  
A translucent mist enveloped his body. Where it contacted his body, it bound to the molecules on his skin and formed a transparent film that allowed his skin to respire and sweat, yet blocked deadly microbes and germs from entering his body. It was his second skin that made it possible for him to live outside a germ-free bubble. The second skin was good for up to seventy two hours, allowing him to live a fairly normal life. This facility even had a sterile bath allowing him to luxuriate in water, cleansing away the toils of the day without the possibility of the water infecting him.  
  
After his body had been mist-wrapped in its protective film, a computer- voice said, "Sealed." The man clothed himself and stepped out of the chamber back into the sterile area. The doctor held a container out to him. He removed a wig of white hair and fitted it carefully on his head. A band of biofilm lined the edge of the wig. The man, highly practiced in this manual operation carefully pulled and stretched the biofilm down over his face and neck. The doctor watched. His expression was relaxed, his eyes closed as he stretched and patted the biofilm onto his skin. He adjusted the wig and looked at her inquisitively.  
  
"You look fine, Mr. Eckhart." The doctor said gently. The white-haired gentleman looked brightly at the doctor. "I've been seeing you for exactly a year now. Would you care to join me for lunch?"  
  
"Lunch?" she echoed, handing his glasses to him.  
  
"To celebrate." He replied with a self-depreciating smile. He knew that the doctor was remembering their first encounter a year ago..  
  
"I asked for a male doctor!" Eckhart had spat at her, his eyes filled with rage. She faced him emotionlessly, her grey eyes studying him.  
  
"There are no male doctors in this specialty, sir." She had replied respectfully without backing down.  
  
"Then get me one."  
  
The doctor looked over at Eckhart's sponsor. "I have no desire to baby-sit an unwilling patient. I have many others who require my expertise. THEY are not female-phobic." She turned to leave.  
  
"I am NOT female-phobic." Eckhart responded, glaring at the pale woman.  
  
"Mr. Eckhart has been accustomed to having a male physician for many years," the sponsor told her. "Unfortunately, he is no longer available."  
  
The doctor stepped close to the white-haired man and scrutinized him. "Perhaps that was a good thing. In addition to fear of women, you appear to have survived the attack of a mutagenic agent. If you will permit me." the doctor extended a leather-gloved hand toward Eckhart. "I won't actually touch you," she hastily reassured him.  
  
"I don't want you reading my mind." Eckhart stated.  
  
"I'm not telepathic." She replied, "I'm a physiological empath."  
  
Eckhart stared at her. "You appear older than the generation of New Mutants that Adam Kane created."  
  
The doctor started at the name. A shadow crossed her face. "I've read his works and my 'condition' is not the result of his experimentations." she replied defensively.  
  
"You seem to disapprove of him," Eckhart commented, watching her carefully.  
  
She grimaced. "I've treated many of his victims, excuse me, patients and have seen an enormous amount of physiological and emotional damage. So excuse my knee-jerk reaction to hearing his name." She held her gloved hand about a foot away from Eckhart's chest for a moment then withdrew it.  
  
"Why do you wear gloves, doctor?" Eckhart's eyes betrayed his curiousity as he looked at his own gloved hands then back up at the doctor's pale complexion.  
  
"For a person who will not be requiring my services, you ask an awful lot of questions." The doctor commented.  
  
**** flash back to the present ************  
  
The doctor sat across from Eckhart in the hospital cafeteria. "you should really try the kale soup," she was saying.  
  
"You're avoiding my question," Eckhart chided her gently. "I've studied you for a year. We have so many things in common, our manner of dress, skin coloring, avoidance of physical contact, our opinion of Adam. So, do you date men, or are you male-phobic?"  
  
The doctor's grey eyes regarded Eckhart with an amused look. The man remembered every little detail since their first meeting. "I am androgenous, although not by choice, Mason. I am unable to have any sexual relations." She watched his expression carefully to gauge his reaction. She considered the man almost a friend, yet had held back from entrusting him with very personal information.  
  
Eckhart listened with interest. "You're very feminine for an android. So you're not homosexual."  
  
"I'm as homosexual as you are." She answered mildly.  
  
"I'm asexual." Eckhart replied softly. "My condition requires that."  
  
The doctor nodded. "Mine too."  
  
Eckhart shifted a little in his chair. "Are you immune-compromised too?" He looked at her gloved hands and gazed expectantly at her. She shook her head and sighed gently.  
  
"I was subjected to mutagenic materials as a child. Space-rock, I believe- under the mound of earth that I played on every day irradiated my body and changed me. I was sick for a long time, the condition resulting in my albino complexion. As an early teen, my body mutated further, causing me to assimilate the life force of any creature that I came in physical contact with. One of my friends ended up in the hospital in a coma for several weeks when I touched her hand. Shortly afterwards, one of the school bullies landed in the hospital in a similar state when he pinned me down and tried to (ahem) kiss me." Her eyes flashed. "My folks couldn't deal with me any more. They sent me away to a boarding school. I wear the gloves for your protection and for mine, otherwise, a stray touch of my unprotected skin could kill you." She finished.  
  
"I understand," Eckhart replied softly.  
  
"I've worked up a new formula for both of us. This will enhance our potential and in turn, strengthen our bodies. I hope to be able to reverse this force within me so that instead of drawing out life force, perhaps I can put some back into my patients and heal them. As for you, you have meta-human potential. Your charisma is human, but there is both an attractive force about you and a superior intellect. Perhaps these will become manifest in some meta-human way." She smiled.  
  
"You're the highly acclaimed genetic reconstructionist" Eckhart quipped. They clinked their plastic glasses together.  
  
"Here's to 12 months together and to our potential," the doctor said smiling.  
  
"And here's to the catalyst,." Mason Eckhart answered matter of factly. They drank the mixture. Michael cleared the table for them. Michael was her concession to Eckhart's original demands for treatment. He wanted a male body-guard in the examination room with him during treatment. She had no problem with the request. A year later, Michael still sat unobtrusively in the corner of the exam room like a fixture or rather, more like a family member. He was a non-mutant, single, loyal. Eckhart was fortunate to acquire men like him for his bodyguard. The doctor gazed warmly at her patient. He was likeable, after all.  
  
"Let me walk you to your car," she said.  
  
. 


	2. The Execution

Final crossing c-2 The Execution  
  
The doctor accompanied Eckhart through the corridor of the medical center, slowing her pace to match his. Eckhart studied the clipboard that the doctor was holding. The bodyguard of five men surrounded them, two in front, three in the rear.  
  
"Why do you always keep so many guards around you, Mason?" she asked.  
  
"I have many enemies who do not share my view of the truth," he answered.  
  
"Adam?"  
  
"Yes, Adam." He replied.  
  
"He's a doctor. He wouldn't try to kill you, would he?"  
  
"He's a man who has lost sight of his calling and is obsessed with developing his New Mutants, for whatever selfish reasons he has. I called him on it and reported him to the proper authorities. After due consideration, they pronounced a just sentence upon him, but his team of highly trained, evolved Mutants rescued him. I suspect that he has me on his hit list."  
  
"You're damned right he does," a new voice rang out. Shalimar was perched on the wall above them, supporting herself on the narrow ledge. Her eyes glowed as she dropped down on them and immediately put Eckhart in a headlock. She began to slowly apply pressure to his neck. The security guards suddenly found themselves engaged in hand to hand combat with Jesse, Brennan and Emma. The doctor, gazed alarmed at the scene unfolding before her. She grabbed Shalimar's arm and pulled at it, trying to loosen the Feral's stranglehold on her patient.  
  
"LET HIM GO!!" she demanded, pounding uselessly on Shalimar's arm.  
  
"Not on your life, honey," the golden haired Feral replied, flicking her arm and sending the doctor a few feet away. She spoke into her com-link. "We've got him, Adam."  
  
"Good," Adam's voice said coldly. "You know what to do."  
  
Within a few short moments, the Mutant X team had subdued each of Eckhart's 5 bodyguards.  
  
"Michael!" the doctor felt the guard's pulse. It was weak, fluttering. She looked up incredulously. "He's critical. I need to get him to surgery." She rapidly checked each of the other guards. They were unconscious but seemed stable. The pale woman came back to Michael and scanned him with her hands. Bruised artery, internal bleeding, she thought shaking her head. Worried, she looked over at Mason. The beautiful blond woman was still holding him in a headlock in a standing position. Mason stood expressionless, unresisting in her grip, watching the doctor. A tall, muscular male standing several feet away from him was playing with an ever-growing arc of electricity in his hands.  
  
"Any last requests, Eckhart?" Brennan asked.  
  
"Mason, who are these people?" she asked.  
  
Eckhart stood stoically in Shalimar's grip. "They are Mutant X." he replied.  
  
"I'm calling 9-1-1." The doctor said angrily.  
  
"We can't let you do that," Emma said, forming a Psionic blast. The doctor whirled and grabbed a gun from one of the fallen guards. She tripped on the man's outstretched arm, just as the red-headed woman delivered the blast.  
  
"Don't anyone move," the doctor said, waving the gun around at her attackers.  
  
"C'mon, doctor. You'll hurt someone with that," Jesse tried to reason with her.  
  
"Like you hurt Michael? He's dying! If he dies, one of you is a murderer." she exclaimed. "Who do you think you are, invading a medical facility and inflicting injury."  
  
"We are here to eradicate the highest form of evil," Emma said solemnly, her blue eyes beginning to go a little black. "Don't worry, you will not remember this."  
  
The doctor had activated the emergency security pager that all personnel carried. She knew that by the time the police arrived, it would be too late, but hoped that the threat might cause their attackers to pause or to stand down.  
  
"I've already called 9-1-1. They should be here momentarily," she replied, gazing alertly around her while trying to make the bodyguard comfortable.  
  
"My last request," Eckhart spoke up, realizing that Mutant X was not falling for the doctor's bait.  
  
"Well?" Brennan demanded.  
  
"I want to state that you are about to kill an innocent man (someone snorted in derision) and that the charges you have against me are false assumptions. You have no idea of my side of the story." Eckhart stated, looking at each member of Mutant X, then at the doctor. She nodded.  
  
Brennan generated a ball with lethal electrical charge and threw it at Eckhart. Shalimar let him go and gave him a little push toward Brennan. The doctor saw all this and lunged at Eckhart, knocking him out of the path of the lethal blast. The bolt exploded into the woman who convulsed as she fell to the ground.  
  
"Anna!" Eckhart exclaimed softly, in horror. He scrambled toward the fallen doctor and turned her over. Her sightless eyes were still open as he felt for a pulse in her neck. There was none. As Eckhart looked down, fighting to contain his grief and rage, Brennan looked to his companions for support.  
  
"She got in the way, it was her choice." He said defensively.  
  
Jesse, Emma and Shalimar looked momentarily stunned but then Emma said, "We don't have much time, Brennan."  
  
"She's dead. You killed an innocent bystander," Eckhart said, hiding his shock. He stared at Brennan accusingly. "Murderer."  
  
"Look who's talking," Brennan retorted, moving his hands in a circular motion to create another bolt.  
  
Eckhart knelt beside the doctor and gently closed her eyes with a gloved hand.  
  
". a stray touch of my unprotected skin could kill you." Her words echoed in his mind. He didn't want them to take the credit for ending his life. He would take his chances. He bent forward and kissed her forehead. Suddenly, the room was spinning and turning black and he could hear a high pitched whine in his head. He felt all of his strength slip away like water through a sieve and started to collapse. Catching himself he looked up in time to see the outline of Brennan throw a final lethal dose of electrical voltage at him. Blue bolts of electricity emanated from where Brennan had struck him. Eckhart's eyes glazed over, his mouth opened as if to deliver a final retort. He shuddered slightly and fell lifeless onto the doctor's body, his face touching hers.  
  
Jesse walked over silently, checking for pulse in Eckhart's neck. Emma's eyes had an other-worldly quality as she scanned their arch-enemy's mind for any sign of activity. All was dark and still. He was gone.  
  
"It's over," Emma said. Jesse nodded in agreement at Brennan. Shalimar glared down at the lifeless forms, resisting an impulse to scratch dirt over them.  
  
"I wonder if there was any truth to what he said about the false assumptions," Jesse wondered aloud.  
  
"C'mon, Jesse. We all know what a liar he was," Shalimar replied, "you of all people."  
  
They could hear sirens in the distance. Jesse shrugged. He silently led the way, touching the nearest wall and phasing the molecules so that his teammates could pass through in safety in front of him. They had completed their mission and rid the world of an evil man. The blond man, last in line to leave turned and looked back at the fallen that they left behind them. He looked away, wondered for another moment at Eckhart's last words and moved on.  
  
THE END  
  
A/N- This was my response to Final Judgment. Was Adam really guilty? What if he was? I had another chapter set up to bring Mason back because the world just wouldn't be the same without him, but decided against it. Heck, let's ponder the character of Mutant X from Eckhart's point of view for a change and have Mutant X make good on all of their threats about getting rid of Eckhart. Comments anyone? Like it? Hate it? Just curious. 


	3. The Haunting

SOG-3  The Haunting

Disclaimer- same as always.  Don't own them.  Wish I did.

A/N-  MW, this chapter is for you.  Thanks for the encouragement, without it this wouldn't have been written-- so if it sucks….*grins*.  Besides, I just couldn't leave Mason lying there dead.  Where's the sport in that?   I'm playing as usual.  The story does not reflect the Author's beliefs or ideologies, I'm just using conventions to more effectively mess with your minds….

******

All was quiet in the hallway of the medical center.  The bodies of Dr. Anna Richards and Mason Eckhart lay sprawled on the floor where their executioners left them.  The fluorescent lighting of the building was overshadowed by the pale, white light from the skylights and windows.  The unnatural brightness drained color from the walls and surroundings, dressing the fallen couple in shades of gray.

Anna opened her eyes first and found Mason still lying on top of her, his face touching hers.  Alarmed, she moved her head a fraction away from his so that the deadly contact with her skin would be broken.  Eckhart opened his eyes a moment later and blinked slowly trying to remember something.  

"Oh," she sighed softly.  "Thank God, you're all right."

"I'm fine, Anna."  Eckhart replied, puzzlement apparent in his voice.  "I remember kissing you on the forehead."

"and I remember pushing you out of danger's path," she replied equally puzzled.  "But what else happened?"

Eckhart propped himself up on his elbows and looked down at the dark-haired woman beneath him.  The lighting made the gold strands of hair glitter amongst the ebony strands.  An impish grin spread across his face.  She looked up at him questioningly then smiled back at him.  "You kissed me and I didn't kill you," she said almost in wonder.

"Maybe you did and we're in our eternal reward," Eckhart joked delightedly.  He pulled the binding away from the doctor's hair and ran his gloved fingers through and kissed her soft, cool hair.

"Yes," he said softly, "so much nicer unbound," and drawing closer to her, he gently touched her lips with his.  Anna flinched and watched him closely to see if he'd collapse.  He didn't, just held himself up a maddening few inches away from her face studying her.  A wave of relief swept over Anna, followed by a fierce sense of being joyously set free.  Suddenly she frantically removed her gloves.  She looked at him and nodded.   "You too.  Take yours off."  She directed.

With a lift of an eyebrow, he obeyed.  Anna sat up now, next to Eckhart on the floor in the middle of the corridor.  She held her hands up, palm out toward the white haired man, and he did the same toward her.  They clasped hands.  Other than a sense of pure relief, there were no adverse effects.   They regarded each other for a moment, then collapsed onto each other, mouths locked together, caressing.  A shadow filled the corridor but the two were oblivious to it.

**** at the same time in the same place ******

A pair of residents walked through the corridor, over the spot where the bodies had been removed just hours earlier.  

"MAN!  Did you feel that?  There's definitely a cold spot in this corridor,"  one of the residents exclaimed.

"You know that this is exactly the place where the Doctor Richards  and one of her patients were murdered.  I'll bet this place is haunted.  Let's step back and see if that cold spot is really there?"

The two back-tracked a couple steps and suddenly both felt the ice-cold center of the corridor.  "I've got a thermometer here in my kit.  Let me hold it in place here," Walker said as he pulled out the small instrument.  His hand shook slightly.

"A little nervous?"  Madrid asked with a nervous laugh.

"No, just feel like my insides are turning to ice here.  Hm.  Just another 30 seconds and this baby should be registering 30-40 Fahrenheit."  

Madrid stood further away from the cold spot and rubbed her hands to warm them.  She watched the thermometer's mercury line carefully while Walker held it within the cold zone. 

"It's not doing anything," she said.

The blond man quickly stepped away from her and walked several feet down the hall before he stopped, rubbing his arms vigorously.  

"Hey, is something wrong?"  Madrid asked.

Walker shook his head.  "I just got too much of the dead-zone."  He heaved a sigh.  "It's much warmer here, but our thermometer still registers the same temperature.  I have to say that perhaps something is affecting our perceptions of ambient temperature."

"Ghosts?"  Madrid asked.  Suddenly the woman jumped backwards and seemed to be tracking invisible movement away from her down the hall in the opposite direction.  She looked astonished.

Walker shot her a look.  "Maddie?   Something?"

Madrid's attention snapped back to the present and said, "I had a distinct sense of a presence moving that way.  I could almost see it – it was a translucent outline of two people walking that way."  She pointed back toward the center's exit.  Her partner shrugged.  He didn't believe in ghosts or in extrasensory perception, but this was awfully weird.  Madrid stared down the empty corridor, preoccupied with her thoughts.

**** in the same place, same time, different dimension…. ******

Mason Eckhart sighed deeply as Anna slowly tore herself away from him.  "I will treasure this moment," she said.  Mason looked up in question.  "Here we are, sprawled out on the corridor in the middle of a busy prestigious medical center, making love to each other without a thought for who might walk around the corner.  And the amazing thing is that no one has interrupted us."

"Seems like a dream."  Eckhart  answered, feeling all too comfortable.  He gazed attentively at the doctor.  He mused.  "perhaps we should move to more comfortable quarters, doctor?"

"I could stay here forever, Mason, but yes let's move on, it seems to be getting dark here, for all the lighting," she answered.  Eckhart resisted the temptation to embrace her again and stood instead, helping her up.  Wrapping an arm around the other, the pair headed down the corridor toward the exit.

"I can't help but think that something else was happening before we found ourselves in this incredibly compromising situation,"  Eckhart mused.

"Yes Mason, I remember pushing you out of danger's way- but what was the danger?"  Anna replied.

"All I can think of is you, as if no one else exists, but surely, there must be someone else we know here."  Eckhart answered. 

Anna smiled.  "Let's walk around.  I'm sure we'll run into someone."  They walked toward the exit, their arms brushing against each other.  Interestingly enough, the center seemed to be devoid of people.  The brightly lit facility seemed to have areas of darkness co-existing  with the light.  

"Look at this, Mason!"  Anna exclaimed.  They walked into a room that seemed relatively dim despite the bright fluorescent lighting.

"Very intriguing," Eckhart replied thoughtfully.  "What is this room?"

"This is the staff lounge.  We're not allowed to smoke in here, but it seems hazy as if someone did light up."

"The air is actually quite fresh," Eckhart said, sniffing the air then touched her shoulder.  "Look," he said softly.

A woman wearing the blue coat of a resident walked into the room.  She seemed to be talking with someone who wasn't there, then looked up directly at them. 

"Hello, Dr. Richards," the woman said.  She suddenly looked to her left as if something else commanded her attention.  She looked at them thoughtfully.

"Is something wrong, Mary?"   Anna asked.  Turning to Mason she explained that Mary was a resident who the others kidded for always being lost in another world.  Mary seemed to be a little anxious now, she kept looking over to a darkened area to her left.

"You can't see them?" She asked addressing the air to her left.  Mary suddenly looked again at them with a guarded expression.  "Oh, I must have been seeing things, too little sleep," she remarked lightly turning away.  "I didn't know she was murdered."

Anna had a horrified expression on her face.  Murdered.  Eckhart drew her close to himself and held her protectively.  Suddenly he saw a vision of a man's silhouette, Anna leaping like a Feral between the man and himself, seeing Anna being struck, convulsing in mid-air, himself holding her dead body, kissing her.  Eckhart closed his eyes in pain as the memories began to return.  "Mutant X." he breathed.  When he opened his eyes, she was staring up at him.  "What do you remember?" he asked.

"The attack on us.  The cat-woman strangling you, Michael being critically injured by the attackers, your body-guard fallen, the electric man attacking you.  I blocked you from his attack."  Anna looked at Mason searchingly.  "I felt as if I was hit by cardio-paddles that were still discharging.  My body tingled then I must have passed out."

"Did it hurt?"  Eckhart asked.

"Just a little.  More of a pulling sensation than anything else.  I suppose that childbirth would have been more painful," she replied.  "How about you."

"It was exquisite,"  Eckhart said with a faraway look.  "I kissed you, knowing that I should die.  Mr. Mulray threw another thunderbolt at me at about the same time."  He looked at her suddenly.  "Can we do that again?"

Anna looked at him mischieveously despite the gravity of the situation.  "Not here." She answered.  "How about my apartment?"

Eckhart gazed hungrily at her.  "Yes, let's," he agreed.

Instantly, they found themselves at Dr. Richard's apartment.  Too amazed to pursue their initial intentions, they decided to experiment.  They decided to go to the Med Center cafeteria.  They were there.  Mason's apartment.  They were there instantly.

"We've developed teleportation abilities."  Eckhart mused.  "But we've only seen one person in a place that should have had at least 40 people.  Why would that be?"

"If we are truly dead, we might be existing on a different dimensional plane," Anna said thoughtfully.  "The rules must be different here.  Our physical bodies are probably somewhere in this facility…." She straightened resolutely.  "Let's visit the autopsy area."  Mason Eckhart nodded.  They found themselves in the basement of the facility where the dead were processed.  The area was brightly lit, yet shadowy.  Two tables were occupied with shrouded bodies.  Eckhart tentatively touched one body, as if to remove the shroud from the face, but was unable to move the piece of cloth.  It was as if the figure was made of stone.  

"At least my hand doesn't pass through like a ghost," Eckhart muttered.

"Dr. Hindlemann should be conducting the autopsy," Anna said.  "I wonder if he's here today."  As she spoke, one of the shadowy areas began to mass and took on the form of Dr. Hindlemann.  The man apparently unaware of them was talking to someone next to him, someone that neither Dr. Richards nor Mason Eckhart could see.

"Dr. Kane," he said, (Eckhart started at the name.  "Adam!" he exclaimed.) "Thank you for arriving on such short notice.  I know you worked with and treated Mr. Eckhart in the distant past.  Perhaps you could share some thoughts on what you know of him.  It may help to figure out who hated him enough to kill him."

Adam's form materialized.  Eckhart's face became a mask of incredulous disbelief.  "The bastard!"  he whispered.  "He put the contract out on me and now he's pretending find my killer?"

Anna took his arm.  "Listen," she hissed.  Dr. Hindlemann lifted the sheet off the corpse.  Eckhart found himself staring at his own lifeless body.  He touched it.  It was solid to the touch, even more so than he remembered.

"Mr. Eckhart was a client of ours." The coroner told Adam.  "His immune system was being rebuilt gradually through Dr. Richard's therapy.  Unfortunately, their early demise prevents us from seeing her therapy through to the success we anticipated."  

Adam looked down.  "Do you have any leads to who might have done this?"  he asked.

"None, unfortunately.  The surveillance cameras show nothing, as if they had been turned off.  The injured have no recollection of the incident; it's as if their minds were erased.  We are totally baffled.  If this was planned, this might be the perfect murder.  We must find out who did this and stop them before they strike again."

"I wonder if perhaps the Doctor had an enemy and Mason just got in the way."  Adam offered.  

Dr. Hindlemann shrugged thoughtfully.  "That is a possibility," he conceded, "although I don't know of anyone who would have reason to harm her.  The positioning of the bodies is a strong indication that she died first."

"We all live double lives," Adam said mysteriously.  "Then again, Mason as you know, had a long list of people that he had alienated.  Any one of them may have wanted revenge."  The men sighed.  "How'd he die?"  Adam asked.

"It's odd, Dr. Kane.  Neither the doctor nor Mr. Eckhart has a mark on them yet they lie here dead while Mr. Eckhart's entire bodyguard survived and show signs of violent physical trauma."  He shook his head. "Blood work and the condition of their internal organs indicate that both had been subjected to intense electrical shock as if struck by a lightning bolt, however, the facility surroundings show no sign of damage. Mr. Eckhart's blood is depleted of essential factors while Dr. Richards is not.  I think that Mr. Eckhart may have died before being subjected to electrical shock, perhaps something that caused his body to cannibalize essential nutrients or components very quickly."

Anna looked at Eckhart with concern in her eyes.  The white-haired man touched her hand reassuringly.  Adam shook his head thoughtfully as he stood over Eckhart's body.

 "Very strange indeed." Adam said quietly.  His dark eyes were unreadable and glistened as he gazed at the still form of his adversary.  He gently brushed a stray lock of white hair out of Eckhart's face.  "Why did it all come to this?" he muttered softly then he turned away.

Eckhart had an incredible urge to touch Adam.  He did.  Adam stopped in his tracks, looking very alert and uneasy as a chill ran down his spine.  Eckhart noticed how easily his hand passed through Adam's arm.  With an intrigued, excited expression Eckhart obeyed the overwhelming temptation to slide into Adam's body.

"Mason!"  Anna called as her companion vanished.  

Adam still stood there uncertainly, looking like there was an internal struggle going on.  He closed his eyes, his face tense and shook his head slowly.  Adam felt for a moment as if he had switched identities—with Mason Eckhart.  It was a strange sensation, a feeling of otherness, as if the man's consciousness overlaid Adam's for a brief moment.  I am Mason Eckhart he thought incredulously.  NO, That's impossible!  But he knew his perceptions had changed for that instant, that a sense of childish curiousity had filled him, energizing his jaded scientific mind; that drive, that need to control that Adam thought he had laid to rest long ago was suddenly very much alive, and he felt an anger within him that was alien to his own nature.  There was more:  passion and memories of a history that was not his own, but Adam shut them out.  In a second, these things registered within his consciousness along with the certainty of Mason's identity within him.  Adam stared one last time at Eckhart's dead body.  He'd have to do something about that guilt complex of his.  Adam acknowledged Dr. Hindelmann and left, looking distinctly unsettled.  Mason Eckhart stepped out of Adam's body and smiled.  This certainly had possibilities.  He looked at Anna.  The woman had quietly observed the interaction with Adam.  She gestured for him to follow her.  He took her hand and they were suddenly back in her bedroom.

"Do you know what this could mean?"  She asked excitedly.  "We're proverbial ghosts!  I never imagined that the afterlife could be like this.  You stepped into Dr. Kane's body, yet neither of us could get back into our own bodies."

"Yes and we have incredible teleportation powers." Eckhart replied.  "It appears that when we focus on someone we know, we can teleport to their location and see them, although any other person in the area is invisible to us."  

"I think people can walk through us and we can't see or feel them.  It's an inter-dimensional phenomena."  Anna reasoned.

"The darkness coexisting with the light!"  Eckhart exclaimed.  "The darkness must be the people from the dimension or life that we just departed.

"But where are all the other dead people?"  Anna asked.  "There's no one else here."

"Perhaps we're in transition?"  Eckhart asked.

"Yes," Anna replied thoughtfully.  "We were murdered.  We have unfinished business."

"Then I think we need to finish our business."  Eckhart replied, a devilish smile spreading across his face.  Anna smiled back at him and pulled him down onto the bed.  There was no rush.

After a forever of delight had passed, they decided to pay Adam and Mutant X a visit at Sanctuary.

******* break *********

At Sanctuary, Adam sat with his team looking lost in thought, wishing that they had a fountain in this area.  "Adam, you seem disturbed about something," Shalimar said.

"Do you believe in ghosts?"  Adam asked.  Emma and Shalimar shook their heads.  

"I just viewed Mason Eckhart's body."  He said, looking subdued.

"Then you should be happy, Adam.  We did a good job.  No evidence."  Jesse said.

"I…just didn't think it would end up like this."  Adam said.

"It's a little too late to have second thoughts Adam,"  Emma stated, looking at him suspiciously, "especially after what he did to you.  Do you think _he would be having second thoughts about you if the Tribunal had succeeded in carrying out their sentence on you?"_

Adam had a faraway look.   "No, of course not.  But as I looked at him, I felt a chill go down my spine and suddenly, I WAS him.  How is that possible?"

"Adam, you have too much of a guilt complex." Brennan chided.  "You did give us the go ahead to pull the plug on that psychopath.  After the hundreds of innocent souls that he had killed or tormented, he got what he deserved."

Mason stood there and listened as his enemies discussed the kind of man he was.  They were all wrong.  He wasn't a murderer.  He was simply trying to counteract Adam Kane's treatments with some of his own.  Like Adam, he didn't always succeed and some of the New Mutants that his people worked on didn't survive.  But his motives had been pure.  He wanted to either remove the mutancies or perfect them.  Like Adam, a new race of humankind had been his vision for the future.  Unlike Adam there had been no room for compromise.  He looked at Dr. Anna Richards to see how she would react to this information.  Anna sat near Emma looking troubled.

"Anna?"  Mason addressed her gently.  The woman looked at him with an anguished expression. 

"Mason, tell me you never intentionally ordered someone's death," she pleaded.

Eckhart looked at her silently and didn't answer.  Anna looked down and didn't speak for several minutes.  Eckhart waited patiently.  He had never intended for this relationship to grow as it had.  Perhaps it was meant to end.

Anna looked up at him.  "I euthanized some of my patients over the years," she said softly.  "It had been for their own good and for the good of society."  Eckhart's eyes widened.  This had escaped the careful check he had made on her before he agreed to let her treat him.

"Would I have been one of those euthanized patients?"  he asked carefully.

"What if you had been?"  Anna asked.  "You had submitted yourself to my care for treatment.  What if I had determined that your quality of life didn't justify its continuation?"

"You're just like Adam, playing God with human lives!"  Eckhart exclaimed.

"And what about you, Mason?  If what these people are saying here is true, you have sent killers after them and other hapless experiments of Adam Kane.  I understand people die on the battlefield and I'm not talking about that.  I'm talking about you selecting individuals to hold against their will and experiment on them without their consent and killing them if they refuse.  Now who's playing God?"

The two glared at each other while Mutant X continued their discussion, oblivious to their presence.  Anna's gaze softened.  "I had always felt some kind of connection with you, Mason.  We are of a kind, you and I."

Eckhart nodded.  "Yes.  We could have accomplished much had we been permitted to continue our existence."  He looked at Adam thoughtfully.  In that brief contact with him, he had picked up much insight on Adam's personality and quirks, much of this he had already figured out over the years, but the interpersonal relationships….hmmm.  Anna was sizing up Shalimar.  

"Be careful,"  Eckhart said softly.  "She's not your type."

Anna placed a hand on the Feral's arm and watched it pass through.  Shalimar shivered and looked around suspiciously.  Anna slipped into Shalimar's body.  The blond Feral looked up toward the ceiling with a puzzled expression.

"Shal?"  Brennan took her hand.  Shalimar snapped away from him but still stood there as if listening.  Her eyes glowed like yellow coals.

"I…I feel so weird," she said.  "…As if all this was new."  

"What's new, Shalimar?"  Emma asked, trying to read her friend.

"I don't know.  For a second I felt like I was someone else."  She sighed.  "so strange."  Shalimar's eyes became slightly unfocused and Emma caught a sense of another presence within Shalimar, but it was subtle.  It felt like another personality or aspect of Shalimar was surfacing.  "Emma, it's not me,"  Shalimar gasped softly.  She turned to Adam, her eyes wide and intense as Anna searched the Feral's open mind and assimilated her personality.

"Shalimar, what are you feeling?" Adam asked anxiously.  Shalimar sighed deeply and relaxed.

"That was the weirdest experience."  She said.  "Similar to what you just described what happened at the coroner's."  She paused as she seemed to track invisible movement around the group.

"You're weirding us all out, Shalimar,"  Brennan said.  "What are you watching?"  Anna/Shalimar smiled and tossed her hair, Anna deeply aware of Eckhart's presence and following his movements.  Brennan suddenly felt a chill go through him as Mason touched his arm and paused thoughtfully.  Eckhart then stood next to Emma and gazed at her curiously.  Emma shifted uncomfortably.  

"I always wanted to have telepathic powers," Eckhart said aloud to Emma.  The redhead shifted nervously.  She sensed his intent, but not his presence per se.

Adam, something is going on here.  I'm picking up strange thought patterns at the same time that Shalimar and Brennan felt the coldness in here.  Shal, why are you staring at me like that?"

Anna/Shalimar didn't reply.  Anna watched Eckhart expectantly.

Eckhart touched Emma's arm.  The red-head whirled, hugging herself.  Her eyes darkened as she tried to scan what was intruding on her body.  Eckhart stopped.  Something didn't feel right about this.  He looked at Anna/Shalimar with an odd, hungry look and waited.  Anna stepped out of Shalimar and approached him.

"I am concerned that eventually we will become locked into one of these bodies if we continue this little game.  I want you to know that I will always love you, regardless of where we end up, Anna."  Mason said, his dark eyes devouring the sight of Anna.

"We don't have to do this, Mason."  The doctor said.

"Ah, but we do."  Eckhart replied, holding her, touching his forehead to hers.

"Yes, the unfinished business," Dr. Richards murmured resignedly, feeling totally contented in his arms.  "Do you suppose that there is a limit to the number of times we can step into a body?  Or will I be locked in when the 'right' one comes along?"  Anna whispered into the white hair that covered Eckhart's ear.

"None of the above, I hope," Eckhart said.

Emma stared at them, cautiously extending her hand toward the space that felt cold as ice, the space that was occupied by Mason Eckhart and Dr. Anna Richards.  Adam paced nervously, watching his people for clues.  They had superior senses and he depended on their input to make the right decisions.  Emma waved her hand warily in a wide arc before her, advancing, her hand passing through their bodies.  Anna started to shimmer when Emma's hand touched her.  

"Mason, I can't move," she cried.  A moment later, she melted into Emma.  The red-head stopped in her tracks and looked directly at Mason.  She then looked at Jesse.

"Em?"  Jesse said, "something wrong?"

Eckhart strode over to Jesse and touched him.  Jesse shivered and stood up abruptly.

"Man, something's gotta be wrong with the thermostat.  It feels like the temperature has dropped 20 degrees."  He declared.  Everyone nodded in agreement.  Jesse suddenly met Emma's gaze.  His mouth dropped open then he swallowed.  Emma stared back, suddenly overtaken with an overwhelming longing to be in his arms.

"Uhm guys?"  Shalimar raised an eyebrow at them and scowled her disapproval .

Jesse startled, reddened in embarrassment, but suddenly, with uncharacteristic coolness directed his full attention to the group and replied dismissively, " I'm not sure I understand why we need to continue this conversation."  Turning to Adam, Jesse said,  "ADam, unless there is anything you need from me, I will turn in.  I need to reflect on the events of the day."  Adam stared at Jesse, stunned.  He was momentarily shaken by the way Jesse pronounced his name, and at the realization that Jesse's comment was a direct quote from a much younger Mason Eckhart.  Adam stared at Jesse suspiciously.

"Mason?"  Adam said in a small voice.  Jesse stopped in his tracks and looked back at him sharply.  The rest of the group watched the two men.  

"ADam," Jesse said, "is there something wrong?"

"Even the way you pronounced my name is like him,"  Adam mused aloud.  "Jesse, are you feeling any ambivalence about your identity?"

The blond man gazed intently at the older man, looked down introspectively,  then allowed himself the slightest of smiles.  "Never felt better, Adam," he replied lightly.   His shoulders slumped for a moment and he sighed deeply.  Jesse felt slightly confused yet comfortable, as if an imaginary friend had returned to him.  He would sort it out later, alone in his room. 

Adam gazed at him for another moment.  Jesse stole a glance at Emma and Adam saw Emma return the look. Adam shook his head indulgently then dismissed the incident as chance, storing it for future reference.  There had always been a certain chemistry between these two.  Shalimar and Brennan approached him.  

"It's been a long day, Adam.  How about we call it a night?"  Shalimar threw her right arm around his shoulder and her left around Brennan's waist.  

Emma blinked contentedly.  The cold spot was gone.  Maybe they were all tired from the stress they had been under.  She had felt strange for a moment when she touched that cold spot but felt good now.  Aware of her triune nature, Emma  believed that one of her entities was developing.  She would watch and wait.  Her teammates had committed a crime, and she had a strong feeling that it would come back to haunt them.  They would deal with it.  There was far more important business at hand, like getting to know her own powers and Jesse a little better.

"Ghosts, Shalimar?"  Emma repeated, as Shalimar interrupted her out of her reverie.  "No.  I still don't believe in ghosts," she said with a disarming smile, turning in time to catch Jesse standing motionless in the doorway, watching her silently, hungrily.  He left.  She ran to follow him.  

The End.


End file.
